Voulez-vous un croissant?

We were planning on continuing to Luang Prabang by boat as I had read how spectacular the scenery was along the river, but when we saw the hordes of people at the boat landing, we chickened out and decided to take the bus instead. We didn't miss out completely on the scenery as the road followed the river for a large part of the ride and it only took 4 hours instead of 7 on the boat, and at half the price.

Hammocks time

The ride to Nong Khiaw was another memorable one. This time nobody vomited from the window but it still was far from comfortable. The minivan that was to take us there should not fit in more than 15 passengers but our driver thought it wasn't enough, so off we went, 17 people crammed in an old Toyota van. I had the young Lao boy's leg literally glued to mine the entire journey as he was squeezed between me and his dad.

Sabaidee

My health is getting better in the last days, so I'm back here to write a little on the blog.

Since the last post we have crossed the border between Thailand and Laos and slowly travelled the first hundreds of km into the country. Crossing the border was easy: a tiny boat took us across the Mekong river, then it was just a matter of filling the papers, giving a visa photo (a shiny new picture of me with short hair!) and paying the fee (in American dollars, as it is cheaper).

Black or White

Surprisingly we managed more things in Chiang Rai in a day and a half than we did in five days of Chiang Mai. We did some shopping for medicines, shampoo, toilet paper and such before going to Laos, we stocked up on postcards and stamps, we got our picture taken for the Lao visa since D finally cut his hair... Yes, HE CUT HIS HAIR SHORT, but he does not let me put any picture up, sorry!

Recharging batteries

We didn't do much in Mae Hong Son. At least not in terms of sightseeing or tourist activities. D was feeling better but still not great, so we decided to just stay put for several days and enjoy the tranquility. We updated the blog, caught up on e-mails, did laundry and in general did nothing more than walk around the lake and watch the people getting on with their things. We made a little Thai-Burmese restaurant our base, trying out almost half of the menu including some farang (foreigner, 'guiri') food.

Sometimes you need a break from rice and noodles.  I gained  two kilos in two weeks!

One afternoon I climbed up a hill above town to see a temple with a very long name Wat Phra That Doi Kong Mu. The temple itself was not worth all the sweat, but the views from there were stunning.

The views from above

And while D was resting some more, I decided to learn how to ride a scooter! I never thought I would do it and only until recently I was very afraid of motorcycles (we both were/are). But I figured that it is that kind of skill that can be handy in Southeast Asia where even babies ride a scooter and Mae Hong Son was the perfect place to learn, as the traffic is nowhere near as heavy as in Chiang Mai and there are many side streets where I could practice. So the night before I watched some videos on YouTube on how to ride a scooter or at least how to start it... I got a small Honda (with no insurance whatsoever) and it was as easy as it looked on the videos! I fell in love immediately and even convinced D to try it out and very soon I was driving all around town and even ventured out into the fields and hills outside.

I did wear a helmet while on road,  I promise

Myanmar just behind the corner

And we took the scooter for a ride ... to the hospital! It is becoming our habit to visit hospitals anywhere we go now. Again the hospital was very nice, people very professional and they charged only 4 euros for a blood and urine test! At least now we know that D most likely does not have neither malaria nor dengue fever, good news!

We like hospitals

We spent four easy days in Mae Hong Son and got so fond of it that we were wishing we didn't have to go. But it was time to move on and we spent 9 hours on the local bus again to get back to Chiang Mai. Luckily only to spend a night and this morning another bus took us further north, to Chiang Rai.